The Peluda in Spanish, or La Velue ('The Hairy One') originally in French, is a mythical beast that terrorized the environs of the River Huisne, France, during the Middle Ages. It is called "The Shaggy Beast (The Hairy Beast) of La Ferté-Bernard" in English translation. The supposed serpent-headed creature had a body covered in long green fur with poison-tipped spines protruding. It caused flood (or shot out fire from its mouth) that destroyed crops, devoured livestock and humans, and struck humans and animals dead with its tail. It was defeated after it tried to prey upon a maiden named l'Agnelle; her fiancé slew it by delivering a sword-strike to the tail, its only weak spot. Name The (French, meaning ‘shaggy/hairy one’) was introduced as "", in Spanish, in Jorge Luis Borges's Book of Imaginary Beings (1957), and translated as the "Shaggy Beast of La Ferté-Bernard" or "The Hairy Beast of La Ferté-Bernard" in English versions of the book. Borges's description compares rather closely to the that given in French by the local man of letters, Paul Cordonnier-Détrie (1954). A pamphlet of "La Velue" was printed in 1889 for the Sarthe area, and its text also gave a physical description of the mythical beast in similar language. Description The so-called "" of La Ferté-Bernard" lived on the banks of the River Huisne, and came out to terrorize the populace as far as the city of La Ferté-Bernard during the High Middle Ages, or perhaps more accurately the 15th century during the Late Middle Ages. Physical description The French sources tells that the beast was serpent-headed and serpent-tailed, ox-sized with an egg-shaped body covered in "long green fur", and "from amidst [the fur] there emerged sharp spikes endowed with deadly sting", and it had broad tortoise-like feet. This beast obviously belonged to the same family as the mythical beast Tarasque of Tarascon and Beaucaire, in the opinion of Cordonnier-Détrie. Other commentators have lumped together these two beasts into a class of dragons. Folklore According to the lore, the beast was excluded from Noah's Ark, yet survived the Deluge, i.e., the Biblical Flood. Later it dwelled in the River Huisne, and rampage across the nearby countryside, and even into the streets of the old city of La Ferté-Bernard, which for all its fortifications was which was defenseless against it. Striking out with its serpent-like tail, it could kill both humans and animals. It